Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. – It was almost unfair, and Rory McIlroy gave extra 15 hours to know the exact shot he needs to hit to win.
McIlroy had a clear advantage over JJ Spaun when the Player Championship was a total of Monday’s playoff three holes due to delayed weather on Sunday. But McIlroy was tense for a long time when the winds protruded on the 16th, he later said. On Sunday he regretted not closing the door. The pressure was inevitably on him.
The stakes were a tough night. He woke up at 3am and was unable to return to sleep. The situation has become a “stressing” morning. He arrived at the course at 6:15. It’s the same as if you had to play 18 holes in full to find similarities in normalcy using the same training and warm-up routine.
“I was as nervous as I remember,” McIlroy said.
But if the ball was on the tee, McIlroy was dependent on what he knew, like he’d done all week. His game matures at such moments. He grabbed the driver and sent it over the left tree 334 yards below the fairway. He hit a pitching wedge to a par 5 and made a birdie. Game on. Spaun Made Par. There were two holes left, but the game was already over.
“I never had my best this week,” McIlroy said. “But I still managed to win one of the biggest tournaments in the world. That’s a big deal.”
This victory is McIlroy’s game victory and another testament to his longevity and his maturity. At age 35, 12 years after his professional career, McIlroy still has the brute strength he needs to overwhelm the golf course. But he also has the finesse needed to change gears, recover, fight and win, even if his game is not in peak form. This week, he characteristically missed 30 of the 58 fairways. That wasn’t a problem. His putting, short games and approach games stood up to the challenge.
“I feel like a more complete player,” McIlroy said. “I feel like I can play in all the conditions and in my own way.”
McIlroy has mount his retort since Scotty Schaeffler dominated the sport with nine wins and one major championship, turning him into an unquestionable top player in the world. Through four events this season, the world’s second player has won two wins this season at the signature event this season.
If the result is a headline, the process unfolds over four or five days of golf is tangible evidence. After spending some time working on his swing in the offseason, McIlroy controls his golf ball and even controls his game. Even when the game instantly irritates him, his evolution as a player left him patient. McIlroy can hit it high, just like he did on the 16th tee Monday morning. He can also bomb it low, as he showed on Sunday in the second hole where he made an important eagle. And when the wind rises and pressure is applied, McIlroy can rely on his off-speed pitch and accuracy.
When he arrived at the island’s Green 17 tee on Monday, it was blowing in the wind 130 yards, so he knew the exact shot it needed. Within range, he practiced it and placed himself in order to mimic the wind he knew he would face. McIlroy said “three-quarters of nine iron” would be around 147 yards. That’s exactly what I did. “I’m going back to 2009 when I first looked at this golf course, and it certainly wasn’t falling in love at first sight,” he said. “I had to learn to play this golf course and adapt the game to it in a few ways. Winning again is great.”
The cracks between the Liv Golf and the PGA Tour over the past few years seemed to put water into several PGA Tour events, but players still weighed on and McIlroy felt it when he raised the golden trophy again.
Tournaments almost always produce great winners. Most courses require elite performance. Six years after his first victory here, McIlroy’s second victory put him in a rare company. This is because only three other players acquired multiple players and multiple majors (Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Schaeffler).
The role Schaeffler plays in the form of McIlroy should not be dismissed. His greatness forced him to dig deeper into his resolve to remain one of the best. That’s why McIlroy has set up some swing changes this offseason.
“Looking at Scotty, what he did… that urged us all to try and try to get better,” McIlroy said. “I know I have to get better to compete with him.”
As the calendar changes to April, the conversation will inevitably change to what all of this success may mean for Augusta’s McIlroy, who protects his second green jacket. The major drought has entered its 11th year of the season, which brings in more attention, more pressure and more questions. But as he showed Monday and throughout this week, McIlroy is as confident in his ability to win the biggest event as ever, even if not far from the heartbreaking big losses he has had.
“I don’t feel like I’m making those mistakes at such a critical time as before. I think most of them were just learning from those mistakes,” McIlroy said. “It’s a long career. You have to stay incredibly patient. I think some of these losses have helped me learn what to do when I’m in those positions again.”
McIlroy’s victory this week is important. After doing this for a long time, he knows from outside that his career is measured in the majors, but he knows that golf is a game of thin margins of razors that allow the difference between a trophy and another check to go down to an inch. He’s well versed in that, but the two victories this season serve as evidence that he’s doing his job not only in himself, but also in the rest of the golf world, and that no one is better than him.